Lucid Dreaming
by pianoman555
Summary: Both of Sakuras parents are killed in the Nine Tails incident, so she's raised in a very different environment by two powerful women. But when her dreams seem a little too real her family is put in jepordy, and no one will listen to her so she'll have to woman up and set out on her own. Because you know what they say, if you want it done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself.
1. Prologue

Prologue

For some immeasurable amount of time she floated in the void between consciousness and a less pleasant alternative. Sometimes aware of what might have been speech, but just came across as distant mumbling. One thing was consistent though, a steadily repeating beep pierced through the darkness, never letting her have that final lasting peace. Her mind was groggy and her thoughts were slow to form. At first it wasn't so bad but it was becoming increasingly frustrating the more she thought about just how long she'd been here. It was driving her mad because something was so painfully wrong, some paramount injustice that she, for the love of Kami could not remember. Just a deep unsettling sense of frigid emptiness that she kept trying to fill with mental images of warmth. But her thoughts were fleeting, just as a picture began to form it would just as quickly distort and melt away. What had started to look like a person was suddenly a mess of random shapes and vague memories all competing to be seen. Eventually she gave up on memories and settled for desperately trying to scream, the incessant beeping getting faster as her anguish grew. Right when she was about to lose it and...well she couldn't really do anything but she wasn't sure what would happen if she just gave up. She was ready to try however, because anything would be better than this, even nothing. As if sensing the defeatist thoughts that were forming, something enveloped her. Warmth and comfort flooded her veins and the monotonous beep slowed. It faded to the back of her mind and she relaxed, for the first time she stopped thinking so hard and let go. The beeps faded and she embraced the quiet, finally resting.

* * *

Something was babbling in her ear, at first she was afraid that she was back in the confusing neither here nor there again. But her mind was slightly sharper than before, her memories coming back slowly and her thoughts were more clear. She decided to open her eyes and try to figure out what was going on which she immediately regretted. The blinding white light slammed into her skull and a wave of nausea nearly overtook her. She immediately closed her eyes and pressed her head further back into the soft object underneath it, trying to calm the headache that had just been created. After a few precarious moments the pounding subsided a bit and she cracked her eyes open slightly taking in what she could of the room. The walls were pristine white as were the floors, the ceiling, the blankets and her gown. _Maybe I'm dead, _she thought glumly. The heinous beeping was still steadily droning, each one a little stab to the ache right between her eyes. _Maybe I'm in hell, _she corrected herself bitterly. In an attempt to stop the pain she closed her eyes again and began massaging her temples. But the annoyance continued so she reached to her right and began blindly swatting the air hoping to murder whatever was making the sound. Her swings grew faster, more violent, and covered more area until something clamped down on her wrist. Her eyes sprang open, migraine be damned and she saw a familiar slender pale woman with long black hair standing over her holding her wrist and an infant.

"Mikoto?" She asked rubbing her tired eyes in confusion and attempted to sit up for the first time since she woke up. Something began to slide away from her and towards the edge of the bed until Mikoto released her wrist and caught it. It being another infant, he began babbling tiredly again, the sudden movement almost waking him.

"Kushina," the other woman said worriedly, "Are you ok?" _Why does she look so sad? _Kushina wondered absently, her mind still operating sluggishly.

"I think so…what happened?" She asked attempting to sit up, when her vision swam she settled for leaning against the headboard of the bed, halfway up. "And who are the babies?" She asked another question, Mikoto's hesitance making her anxious by reminding her just how out of the loop she was.

"Do you not remember the…what happened?" Mikoto asked gently, pausing for a few seconds to rearrange the question.

"Mikoto just tell me what happened." Kushina said, growing frustrated with her blurry memory and her best friend's hesitance. Mikoto sighed and sat down on the chair she'd been in, holding both babies this time.

After several long seconds of silence Mikoto met Kushina's eyes and she was startled to see tears welling in the dark haired woman's eyes. She asked her, "Do you feel the nine tails chakra?"

Kushina didn't even have enough time to think, the question immediately reminding her of the emptiness she'd felt in her unconsciousness. Her memories came pouring, the reminder of the void triggering an avalanche of information. Brutal images of crushed civilians, slaughtered shinobi, an impossibly large fox towering over the village and a bleeding sky. The pain of her seal being ripped apart, her own screams soon joined by hundreds of others as the fox sprang to life, inspiring terror in everything that laid eyes on it.

Noticing her friend had been staring at the same spot on the wall for over sixty seconds, Mikoto began to ask again, "Kushi-"

Kushina cut her off hastily, "The beast!" She exclaimed, "where is it!?" She continued before Mikoto had a chance to answer, "And Minato and Naruto-kun!?"

Mikoto wouldn't meet her eyes, causing Kushina to assume the worst, but then she stood up and crossed the short distance between them and gently placed the blonde baby boy back in her arms. "Look at his stomach."Mikoto faintly requested before returning to the light blue arm chair in the corner of the room.

The intricate seal around his belly button answered all of her questions. _Minato you idiot, how could you! _She screamed internally, outwardly tears already welling past the long standing dams in her tear ducts. They spilled down her downturned face and she bit her lip to keep the sobs that were wracking her body as silent as possible. The first tear dripped onto the sleeping baby stirring him from his nap, and for all that she loved her only son, he certainly couldn't read the room. He looked up at his crying mother and began laughing and playing with her limp red hair. _Kami he looks just like his father _Kushina thought devastated but she couldn't help but give her giggly little boy a small smile. _Now isn't the time for tears, _ she thought resolutely, _I've got a lot of work to do. _With that she cradled him closer to her face, supporting his weak neck with her upper left arm. She kissed him lightly on the forehead and began lightly tickling his exposed stomach. He squealed with joy, laughing loud enough to wake up the other infant in the room. After looking around the room and then back to Mikoto she started quietly cry.

Kushina sniffled and looked over at Mikoto who was trying to calm the baby, "I don't remember Sasuke-chan having pink hair." Her voice was tired, strained to the core, and her sad attempt at a joke did little to lighten the air. "Wait is that Sakura?" Kushina asked, suddenly recalling her other best friend Mebuki's daughter Sakura, who was born barely a month ago. "Looks like she'll get Kizashi's…interesting hair." Truthfully she kept talking because Mikoto was being suspiciously quiet and Kushina didn't think she wanted to know why. "I guess we can't make fun of his ridiculous pink hair any more, unless we want to upset Sakura and…" She trailed off because Mikoto had stood up and began walking towards her. She sat on the edge of the stiff hospital bed and made direct eye contact with Kushina. "Is Mebuki helping out in the village right now or..?"Kushina tried to keep going, hoping to speak her friends' safety into existence.

"Kizashi was killed in combat." Mikoto said stoically, not willing to betray how out of control her emotions were, for Kushina's sake. "Mebuki came to me an hour into the disaster, I was guarding several children in the east Uchiha district, and she was dead on her feet." Her voice hitched, barely restrained grief threatening to color her words. "She barely got Sakura into my hands before she collapsed. She...she.." Mikoto paused, grief evident in her voice when it cracked on the last 'she'. Kushina leaned forward pulling Mikoto into a hug, both of them mindful of the now sleeping children they were holding.

"She had a pipe sticking through her abdomen, and her left arm was missing." Mikoto whispered her tears falling onto Kushina's shoulder, quickly seeping into the thin hospital gown. "I have no idea how…how she.." She trailed off, abandoning the gruesome description, "She begged me to take care of Sakura, for both of us to raise her."

Kushina scoffed, a harsh choking sound which startled her old teammate. "As if we would let anything happen to her." She retorted in a worn voice, her tears freely flowing along with Mikoto's now.

"Scoot over." Mikoto requested, lightly pushing her remaining best friend. Once they were situated and the babies were comfortable they interlocked their fingers and drifted off, deciding to deal with the aftermath tomorrow.

* * *

7 years later

Mikoto woke up, confused with her head pounding. Squinting through the bright light she saw her red headed best friend slumped over in an armchair to her right. The light wooden door was shut, the skinny rectangular window revealing that the hall lights were dimmed, _it must be after hours, _she thought_._ The last thing remembered was that she and Itachi had been making dinner and then nothing. She was about to wake Kushina and figure out what the hell was going on, when there was a gentle knock at the door. Sarutobi Hiruzen himself opens the door sending Mikoto into a disoriented struggle to get the blankets off so she could stand at attention. Her movement woke Kushina up, but before either of them could get up the Hokage gestured for them to remain at ease.

"Mikoto-san," he addressed her formally and without hesitation, "Were you aware of your husbands plot to assassinate me and install an Uchiha as Hokage?" His no nonsense tone drained the color from Mikoto's face.

"W-what!" She sputtered, "Fugaku would never do something like that!" Her voice raised, not in anger but panic.

"Unfortunately dear, it appears that he would." Sarutobi informed her grimly, pulling his collar open to reveal a large bloody bandage covering all of the flesh that would have been exposed to her. Before Mikoto could pull her thoughts together and formulate a response he continued, "However, an...insider has alerted me that the vast majority of the traitors were the patriarchs of your clan, but I needed to make sure."

"Hokage-sama I would never betray this village," she replied sternly, her years in anbu helping her remain suppress the growing distress.

"I believe you Mikoto, I will still have a Yamanaka check in with you if you don't mind?" Though it was phrased like a request, she knew better.

"Of course Hokage-sama." She said while giving as much of a bow as one could accomplish while sitting in a bed. "Hokage-sama if I may?" She paused waiting for approval before asking about her family. At his nod she continued, "What happened to my husband?"

"Of the men who came after me, only your husband and five others survived long enough to surrender, and of them only your husband didn't plead guilty." The Hokage told her in a mildly perplexed tone. "And yet, all the surviving men claimed that he was their leader, what do you make of that?" The thinly veiled attempt at gathering information did not go unnoticed, but she couldn't blame him for trying.

"I would love nothing more than to proclaim his absolute innocence and tell you that he was manipulated or framed." She began looking at her hands folded in her lap, "But.. he is a strong and intelligent man, I can not fathom the thought of someone being able to force him to betray his village." She paused and slowly exhaled, turning it into a sigh. "But at the same time, I can't imagine Fugaku ever willingly attacking you, so maybe I don't know him as well as I thought."

Hiruzen was listening to her while gazing at the curtained window behind her bed thoughtfully. "I agree, the thought is quite alarming, and yet I've already had three Yanamaka look into it and they can't find a single memory of planning a coup." He told her pensively, and then as if remembering something important he turned back to face her head on. "Mikoto, I do have one more piece of bad news."

"What is it Hokage sama?" Her stone faced facade was on the verge of cracking, she wasn't sure she could handle any more betrayal at the moment.

"Itachi may have been in on the coup," he began, and Mikoto was immediately on the defensive but he cut her off with a wave of his hand. "He knocked you out as well as the majority of Uchiha that weren't involved in the attack," he took a moment to word his next statement carefully. "But he also killed nearly every man in the clan that wasn't there to assassinate me earlier." Mikoto wasn't sure how to take that, the Hokage's dispassionate voice not cluing her into how he felt about the matter.

"That could be good news, the timing is in his favor." He continued, "Itachi struck just before the planned attack, weakening their attempt." He paused for a moment, his eyes conveying pity and slight guilt. "But with their deaths, there is no evidence against them," he ended solemnly.

"But they had to be in on it, Itachi wouldn't-" Mikoto launched into her son's defense immediately, but she was interrupted by the Hokage.

"I know how you feel Mikoto, and rest assured, I feel the same," Hiruzen tried to comfort her. "But that's the best case, the worst case is that your son snapped and murdered several loyal ninja."

"He would never!" Mikoto shouted, she was about to embark on a monologue of her son's morality when the Hokage put a hand on her shoulder and delivered the final blow.

"He left the village Mikoto," that single damning piece of evidence crushing Mikoto's hopes of being able to help her son. "He's been officially declared a missing nin, the council was unwilling to be swayed." At a loss for words Mikoto's passion faded and she just stared ahead, blankly examining a speck of dust on the wall. "I refused to mark him as 'kill on sight' however, I truly believe in his innocence and will give him the best chance to prove it." Mikoto didn't have a reply, her mind was desperately trying to build a case in her son's favor to present to the council and then it just shut down. _They're gone, _was all she could think, she hardly noticed when the Hokage wished her well and left. Or when Kushina pushed her over and crawled into the bed with her, or when their kids came in and joined them, ushered silently by the Hokage. But with all five of her precious people that weren't currently enemies of the village, gathered in one place, she finally let her brain slip into silence and drifted off.

* * *

A/N: Welcome,

I've been on this site for 5 years now and this is my first time attempting to write my own fic. I expect it will be pretty long, and I also have another idea for one I will probably start soon. The next chapter will jump to graduation and then that's it for time skips (for a while at least). As for the characters, there is one more I wanted to add to the description, but with the limit of four I'll just let them be a suprise.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the prologue!

Bruce


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The summer heat washed over Konoha, embracing her residents in pleasant warmth. The sky was free of clouds allowing the sun's light spread over the entire village. The third training grounds was one of the many that boasted acres of shade-providing, forested land. Sakura was currently enjoying that amenity, laying under a tall tree with both hands behind her head. _This is so nice, _she thought contentedly, it was almost nice enough to make her forget that their new sensei was nearing three hours late. Not that she minded being forced to rest, her teammates weren't nearly as inclined to forgive and relax, however.

"Where is he!?" Naruto whined loudly from where he was pacing outside the shade's reach.

"Whining isn't going to make him get here any faster," her other teammate Sasuke reprimanded, taking a break from relentlessly assaulting a nearby tree with several kunai in the name of target practice. "Idiot," he added for good measure.

"Bastard!" Naruto retorted almost before Sasuke had finished insulting him, "I'll kick your ass-"

"Don't make promises you can't keep dumb ass." Sasuke cut him off, he turned to face him and threw a warning kunai a few inches to the side of his face.

Sakura was annoyed, to say the least, and she knew exactly where this was going. Years of the two boys constantly competing and bickering had taught her that the sooner you got between them the more likely it was that they'd actually stop. Not to mention that she had noticed a strange man crouched in the tree she was under about ten minutes ago. He'd winked at her with his one visible eye and held up his pointer finger in the universal shh symbol. _I guess he's waiting for the boys to notice him, but I can at least give them a hint. _

"If the two of you don't stop whining like children you're going to embarrass us in front of our new sensei, I wonder what your mothers will think." She sounded deceptively peaceful, but her boys recognized a threat when they heard one. Smiling while twisting the knife had been one of the first things Mikoto taught her.

"Sakuraa," Naruto whined, "Sasuke is being a bastard though."

Purposefully ignoring him Sasuke continued, "And our sensei isn't here anyway."

"Yeah!," Naruto yelled, not at all bothered by the lack of acknowledgment, "He's probably a-"

A hand plopping lazily onto Naruto's head cut him off, "At least one of you is aware of your surroundings." The mystery man said in a light-hearted tone, using his free hand to shoot finger guns at Sakura who was still relaxing in the grass.

"I assume you're our new sensei?" Sakura asked politely as she stood up and wiped the dirt off her back.

"Yup," he answered in an infuriatingly cheerful tone, well it was infuriating to Sasuke and Naruto. But before Naruto could start yelling again he continued, "Now let's all introduce ourselves." He pointed at Sakura who was now leaning against the same tree she had been laying under, "You first."

"My name is Sakura, my surname is debatable but we'll go with Haruno for now." Kakashi's visible eyebrow quirked at that, but he didn't interrupt. "I enjoy reading, cooking, and shopping. My goal is to be strong enough to be both a healer and a fighter so that I can protect my family." She finished her introduction with a little bow, though her tone was slightly mocking throughout.

"All right I'll go next!" Naruto shouted, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like ramen, making friends, and cats." If possible Kakashi looked even more amused, "And my goal is to become Hokage and figure out who messed with my mom's seal." Kakashi let his amusement fade and gave Naruto a serious look.

"What does becoming Hokage have to with finding that person?" He asked the blonde.

Naruto gave it a moment's consideration, "I want to be Hokage because my dad was and…" He stopped again and tried to find the right words, "I never knew him, but maybe I can understand him better." Sakura had heard this before and she knows how much he hates talking about his dad, so she walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He gave her a sad smile and a thumbs up before looking back to Kakashi.

He looked carefully composed, with no discernable emotion present on the visible parts of his face. "That's admirable Naruto, and I believe we have one more introduction to hear." He informed them, and all three turned to face Sasuke.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I don't mind music, gardens, and when it's quiet." At that, he shot a light-hearted glare at Naruto, who stuck his tongue out in return. "And my goal is to prove my brother's innocence." Kakashi looked carefully neutral, Sakura couldn't tell what he thought of Sasuke's blatant defense of a known traitor.

"All three of you have interesting goals at least, much better than all the other teams I've failed." Kakashi teased, then he straightened his posture and adopted a more serious look. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I like inappropriate things and beings as annoying as possible while expending minimal effort." The boys looked scandalized when they realized why he was several hours late. Reveling in their shocked expressions Kakashi continued before they could interject, "And my goal is to keep the three of you alive until you can take care of yourselves." He stopped and scratched his masked chin, "And maybe you'll learn something from me along the way."

"Hey-" Naruto started what was bound to be a speech about how he would regret refusing to teach the future Hokage, but Sakura took it upon herself to intervene.

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei, we'll be in your care," she gave a deep bow from the waist, holding the position until the boys took the hint and begrudgingly imitated her. Their sensei looked at the display, slightly disappointed at how she diffused the situation so quickly, but mostly impressed. Sakura could feel his eyes watching them, she was beginning to worry that they'd done something wrong when he started speaking again

"Alright, now for your test." The three of them straightened their backs and saw that Kakashi had a sinister smile as he dangled three bells in front of them. "All you need to do is take these bells from me." They had been told that their new sensei would test them but Sakura had been hoping it would be more of an academic test. "Take as long as you need to plan and then come get me," he said before disappearing in a flash of smoke. He reappeared about thirty meters away in the middle of the open field, where he promptly began reading a book.

"That little-" Naruto was cut off yet again by Sakura grabbing his collar before he could immediately engage. She dragged him into a huddle with Sasuke and said, "I have a plan if either of you would care to hear it." Neither objected so she began explaining.

* * *

Kakashi hadn't expected much from the three newly minted genin despite their family names. Naruto was quick to anger, Sasuke was full of himself and Sakura was intelligent but rarely stood out. At least that was what their academy reports had said. After their introductions, he saw them in a slightly better light but that didn't mean anything if Naruto would abandon his teammates as soon as he was frustrated. Sakura had caught him by the collar and they were currently huddled, but the blonde looked antsy, tapping his foot impatiently.

Right on cue, he yelled, "Screw this!" and ran straight for Kakashi. _Idiot's gonna get his teammates killed if he can't control himself better than this. _Kakashi was rethinking his earlier respect when Naruto unleashed at least fifty shadow clones. As he was dismissing them in droves he realized that the real Naruto wasn't charging, just creating more from a safe distance. _This might be part of a plan. _He glanced back to where the other two had been and saw that they were out of sight, but their chakra signatures revealed that they were just beyond the tree line. After about ten minutes of slaying Naruto clones, Kakashi figured he'd given the other two enough time to set up their little trap so he charged the real Naruto. Or he would have, had Sasuke not tore out of the forest like hell wasn't far behind, spitting fireballs directly at Kakashi. Not wanting to make their attempt at leading him too easy, he chose to dodge backward towards the river. He didn't get far before Naruto's clones came out of the water behind him, each one holding a couple of explosive tags. The explosion would have seriously hurt and been difficult to avoid, so Kakashi made it easier on all parties involved and leapt towards the forest. Sasuke circled to his side, the phoenix flower jutsu on his lips, and Naruto's clones completed the tunnel that was herding him towards a very specific section of trees. _The trap better be damn good for all this effort, _Kakashi thought bitterly and gave in, and vaulted into one of the trees they were angling him towards. He heard the wire snap before anything, felt the kunai dig a trench along his thigh before he could fully react, and then he was airborne watching the show below.

They say that familiarity breeds complacency, and that underestimating the enemy was a shinobi's death sentence. Both were proving true as Kakashi watched the cacophony of traps below him, wires flying in every direction, kunai, and senbon cutting off direct evasion options. None of the previous fresh out of the academy teams he'd tested before had come up with anything close to what their plan was shaping up to be. _But they didn't consider I'd leap straight up it seems, _or it seemed until a wave of Kunai flew at his left side forcing him to use a wind jutsu to push himself away. He landed on the ground at the base of one of the thicker trees and took a second to consider the contributions each member of the team had made. Both Naruto and Sasuke had been impressive if not surprising, they had attacked with the skills he'd known to expect. But was it Sakura that had organized them so effectively, was it she that had hidden the tripwire under a simple notice me not genjutsu? Very few genin came out of the academy knowing more about genjutsu than to shout kai when things started looking funny. He was currently ignoring all his instincts and pretending he didn't sense the mostly concealed chakra signature that had just crept up behind the tree he had his back to. _I think they've earned a chance to win this. _Then it hit him, his leg went numb and his mouth went slightly slack he leaned against the tree for support, exaggerating the effects of the poison. A kunai appeared at his throat an explosive tag attached to the end. _Well color me impressed, genjutsu, poison and chakra concealment, none very developed, but there's potential, _Kakashi thought as the weak paralysis completely wore off.

"I'm not foolish enough to think that any of this actually got you sensei," Sakura began, she was standing at the edge of his peripheral vision, her free hand positioned in the snake sign. "But I hope we've shown enough potential to pass your test."

"Ever the modest one Sakura," Kakashi said with a chuckle, he erected his posture and Sakura withdrew her kunai. "You've shown plenty of potential Sakura-chan," and held out a bell for her. As she hesitantly reached for it, Sasuke and Naruto walked into the little clearing and he said, "Your teammates, however, need one more test." With that said he cast a genjutsu on them, one hand quickly racing through the hand signs. Their eyes glazed over and a few seconds later Kakashi released them. Sasuke rocketed towards her shouldering her violently to the ground several feet away as Naruto stood guard between her and Kakashi.

"What the hell guys!?" Sakura yelled while nursing her bruised collarbone, "I was about to get a bell!"

"But he was gonna...hurt you." Naruto's righteous anger faded towards the end as he realized what had happened.

"It was a trap Sakura, there's no way he would've passed you first," Sasuke informed her his eyes never leaving Kakashi. Sakura balked at his holier than thou tone and looked to the ground"Naruto and I did all the fighting." He tried to amend his first statement but it just made him sound like more of an ass, it didn't help that his back was still to her. _Yikes, looks like I've got my work cut out for me, _Kakashi thought as he chucked a bell over the boy's heads, Sakura heard the delicate ring and looked up, catching the bell. She looked at it for a second and then tightened her fist giving Kakashi a vindictive smile.

"Let's take a walk," Kakashi said cheerfully.

* * *

Pissed was an understatement, Sakura was writhe with hell's fury. It led to an admittedly awkward walk to the entrance of the third training grounds where three thick posts stood. The sun was much closer to the horizon than when they had begun, it was approaching five o'clock or so. Kakashi leaned up against the middle post, each one was well worn after years of being used for target practice. He was silent for a minute, long enough that Sakura was about to tell the boys exactly how she felt.

"Boys," Kakashi unknowingly cut her off, "why did Sakura get a bell?"

"Because she's awesome!" Naruto shouted without a second thought. She hated to admit it, but that did a lot to lessen her anger at him.

"It was her plan." Sasuke muttered, looking at the ground.

"Ok, and?"Kakashi didn't seem pleased with either of those explanations.

After a bit of awkward silence interrupted by Naruto repeatedly saying um and gasping like he'd come up with something, only to sigh and repeat the cycle. Kakashi either pitied them, or grew annoyed with their denseness, and asked another question. "OK, why did the two of you not get a bell?"

"I don't know." Sasuke said almost as soon as the question was asked. Naruto took a minute to think about it.

"You didn't like that we tried to protect Sakura-chan." Naruto almost asked nervously, "Right?"

"I don't mind that you want to protect your teammate Naruto," Kakashi told him. "But why do you think I didn't like it in this instance?"

"It was a test."Sasuke answered again in a cold voice.

"Ok Sasuke, let me ask you this, do you think you could fight a jonin?" Kakashi asked in a stern voice. After Sasuke didn't answer Kakashi continued, "Anymore than Sakura can?" Naruto gasped like he'd finally understood, but Kakashi held up his hand and kept looking at Sasuke. "Did it not look like Sakura had the situation under control?" He was gaining momentum now and Sasuke was refusing to make eye contact. "I showed you a moment's fear and you jumped in, if this were a real mission you could've gotten both of you killed." If it was possible to set the ground on fire with only a gaze, Sasuke would be doing it. "Naruto tell me why you and Sasuke don't have a bell now." Kakashi finally released Sasuke from his gaze and looked to Naruto.

Naruto looked up from the ground and answered, "Because we didn't trust Sakura-chan, even though she's a badass and knew what she was doing." He finished and looked back at the ground withdrawing into guilt. He didn't notice the bell coming at him until it bounced off his head and into his confused grasp.

He didn't say anything, just looked at the bell and thought about everything that had happened. Kakashi accepted his silence and started talking to Sasuke again. "Sasuke, why don't you have a bell?" He didn't respond and showed no sign that he intended to. In the blink of an eye, Sasuke was pinned to the middle post, that Kakashi had been leaning up against. Then he tied him to the post before he could recover and stepped away, turning his back to Sasuke and addressing the other two. "Sakura, Naruto, it's time to train." He led them a couple yards away and had them spar. For the next hour or so they worked on Sakura's hand to hand against Naruto's clones. Then they moved to genjutsu, Kakashi taught Sakura a new illusion and had her use it repeatedly on Naruto. After an hour or so of that, he handed each genin a slip of paper.

"Channel your chakra into these," Kakashi offered them as an explanation. Sakura did it immediately, but Naruto needed more help from their sensei.

"Eww, what does wet dirt mean." Sakura asked slightly disgusted as she whipped her hand back and forth, slinging mud onto the ground. As she was asking, Naruto's piece tore down the middle, and then each slip continuously halved itself until it was dust.

"Looks like Sakura-chan has an earth affinity with a strong water secondary affinity." Kakashi happily informed, "And Naruto has the same affinity as his dad, wind."

Naruto looked so stupidly happy that Sakura couldn't help but pull him into a tight hug. "Are you going to teach us a jutsu Kakashi-sensei?" She asked after she finished hugging Naruto.

"We'll start with channeling your chakra into your element, but let's wait until tomorrow's training session." Kakashi told them with a glance towards Sasuke who was still tied up. "Here's some basic information for you to read first," he said, pulling two small scrolls out of his kunai pouch and tossed one at each of them. Then they walked back to where Sasuke had been for several hours. "Do you know why you don't have a bell Sasuke?" Kakashi asked him again.

"I'm overconfident." Sasuke's voice was tired.

"That's right, you're cocky, and pride is only beneficial in small doses." He cut Sasuke down and asked him another question, "That said, how can you help your teammates with their training, and how can they help you?"

Sasuke thought about the question for a few seconds. "I can help with ninjutsu, my clan has been training me in using elemental chakra since I was a kid." Sasuke's eyes were fixed on the ground, "Naruto can help me with my taijutsu, and Sakura can help me with genjutsu and chakra control."

Kakashi looked pleased with Sasuke for the first time since the test had begun. He was slightly more aware than Naruto had been and caught the bell Kakashi-sensei threw at him. "That's only the beginning of how far you can push each other, but good job."

Sasuke looked up at his Sensei and then his teammates and smiled. Naruto immediately went in for a hug, and both of them looked expectantly at Sakura. "If either of you doubts me like that again, you'll be working a lot harder for my forgiveness." Sakura stood her ground for a moment letting each of them nod in affirmative before she joined the group hug.

Their sensei looked pleased by the reunion, "That's it for today, be here tomorrow at 7am sharp." Kakashi-sensei told them before he disappeared in a plume of smoke. On the walk home Sasuke gave them tips on the things he'd noticed after being forced to watch their practice, Sakura was mostly lost in thought. _That could've been a lot worse, _Sakura thought contentedly when their house came into view. _But tomorrow will be better. _Before she knew it they were at their shared home in the Uchiha district. She and the boys went inside, eager to tell their parents about their first day as genin.

A/N

So this is out a little later than I'd expected, I wrote it earlier in July but I was too busy to edit it. I'm not entirely pleased with the pacing but I'm still getting the hang of that. I hope to start making the chapters closer to 4,000/5,000 words (this ones at about 3.5) But other than that I'm pretty happy, so please review, it really encourages me to get to it when I know y'all are enjoying the story!

-Bruce


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"And then Sakura set off some crazy trap and totally caught Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto finished his heavily embellished story with a dramatic flair of his hands, mimicking an explosion. Sakura concealed her laugh by taking a sip of water. Dinner had been a lively affair thus far, Sakura had elected to let Naruto tell the story of their first day as genin, with Sasuke occasionally volunteering his perspective. They were all seated at the dinner table, with Mikoto and Kushina at the head and foot of the table. The two older women had watched the theatrics with amused expressions. After Naruto was finished they both turned to Sakura.

"Anything you'd like to add Sakura-chan?" Mikoto asked, speaking for the two of them.

"Well I certainly didn't catch Kakashi-sensei," she began to defend their teacher. "He was just impressed by our team work and the plan we made, so he gave me one of the bells." Sakura finished her statement, carefully avoiding any mention of her teammate's idiocy. She should've known better than to try and slip anything past Mikoto though.

"So Sakura was the first to pass then," Mikoto stated with an innocently devious grin. "And how did you boys take that?" She questioned, somehow always knowing when they were trying to hide something.

You'd think after fifteen years of failing they would just give up and come clean from the beginning Sakura thought bitterly. Outwardly she just sighed and made eye contact with Sasuke not wanting to be the one to spill the proverbial tea on their behavior. He nodded back and took it upon himself to explain. He started with a brief explanation of what they saw when they entered the forest, and ended with the punishment he'd faced. He left out the genjutsu that caused the whole mess, probably not wanting to make excuses which he knows his mom hates. "I behaved like an ass and was punished for it." Sasuke muttered quietly after he'd finished the story, holding his mother's gaze determinedly.

Before she or Kushina could say something to the honest retelling and self-assessment Naruto sheepishly added, "So did I," while scratching the back of his head.

Sakura had been angry before, but now that the two were under their mother's scrutinous gazes, she felt the need to protect her stupid brothers. "Kakashi-sensei also put them under a genjutsu and showed them me getting hurt when they first saw us," she added, giving the women the excuse Sasuke had left out. "That's why they behaved so irrationally to begin with."

"No." Sasuke deadpanned now looking at her, "That excuses Naruto, but I was acting like I was better than you and deserved more recognition when it was your plan to begin with." He was clearly unhappy with his past actions, "Don't defend me, I got what I deserved." Sakura had no idea what to say to that, but she felt warm knowing he was truly sorry for his words.

"And we will talk to both of you about your distrust in Sakura later," Kushina cut in, deciding to move the conversation back to celebratory. She looked at Sakura, "I'm proud of you for being able to set up such a complicated trap that quickly." She grinned at Sakura and gave her a congratulatory thumbs up.

"Thanks mom," Sakura said, almost naturally. It had taken years of Kushina and Mikoto telling her to refer to them as her parents for her to feel comfortable doing so. It wasn't that she didn't think of them as her mothers, but she felt guilty, like she was taking them away from their actual kids. She'd voiced her concerns to the boys once, Naruto had laughed and Sasuke had called her, 'dumber than Naruto.' So she'd finally given in and started calling them, mom and mother, refusing to go back to calling them mommy like she had when she was very young. "And I got to use some genjutsu and the poison that we were working on," she said, turning to face Mikoto.

Mikoto smiled proudly at her daughter, "You're growing up to be a very resourceful ninja Sakura, if only your teammates would think to ask their Jonin mothers for help more often." She added a small chide at the end, before standing and walking to where Kushina was seated.

At Naruto and Sasuke's chagrined expressions Kushina continued, "Sparring is important boys," they both turned to look at her. "It helps you sharpen old tools and techniques, as well as think of new way to use them."

"But so is learning new techniques and styles," Mikoto picked up. "In your cases, maybe it's time to work on something in addition to taijutsu and ninjutsu." For years Sasuke had been working on ninjutsu and Naruto had been dedicated almost entirely to taijutsu, those were the two categories where one of them held an obvious advantage. It was smart of their parents to flaunt her success in diversifying, Sakura thought. Now they might actually listen and expand their training a bit.

Kushina and Mikoto were perfect partners especially when it came to retrievals and ambushes. Kushina would lay a complex trap with a combination of physical elements, barrier jutsus, and funinjutsu. Then Mikoto would use genjutsu and poison to give the monstrosity teeth. Sakura respected them greatly and trained with both women as often as she could.

"Yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, "I'm totally ready to learn some of dad's jutsus!" Kushina almost managed to conceal her wince at the mention of her husband, but Mikoto saw and put a comforting hand on her back.

She was quick to recover though, "Maybe we'll start with a simple wind jutsu." Seeing Naruto's crestfallen face she amended, "After all, remember when you snooped through your dad's scrolls and taught yourself how to make shadow clones?"

Naruto's ears and cheeks burned red and Mikoto started openly laughing. "And then you made a hundred but didn't know how to dispel them or control them and they ran chaos through the streets," she tried to say in a lighthearted voice but she kept giggling during and after. This got the entire table to start laughing, even Naruto who recovered from his embarrassment quickly.

After that the conversations remained light, with occasional teasing. Once they'd all finished the older women cleaned up and Sakura went to her room to begin her homework. Laying stomach down on her bed she began reading the scroll Kakashi-sensei had given her. It covered the basic theory of elemental manipulation. The gist of it was that everything, living or not, had some form of chakra in it. To manipulate an element you have to match your chakra wavelengths as close as you could to the natural chakra in the element, which was made much easier if your chakra already had similar wavelengths. Sakura wasn't quite sure how that worked if your chakra was similar to two elements, but there wasn't any information on that in the scroll. At the end of the scroll it did venture to say that if someone familiarized themselves enough with an element's chakra they would be able to control it without expending any of their own chakra. Which sounded incredible to Sakura, though her hopes were slightly dampened when it said this kind of familiarity was rare and incredibly difficult to accomplish, citing the Body of Water jutsu as an example of what could be done with perfect wavelength matching.

The scroll was short but very interesting and opened Sakura's mind to possibilities she had never considered. Though she had little trouble comprehending it due to her studious nature, she thought she'd check in with Naruto just to make sure he wasn't struggling too badly. The sun had long since set, and not wanting to disturb the rest of her family she moved as stealthily as she could down the hall to Naruto's room. Creaking his door open she saw that he wasn't there, so she expanded her chakra awareness. Kushina had been teaching her this for several months and it was difficult and took all of her focus. First she sensed Sasuke's which was calm, telling her he was still asleep. Her mothers concealed theirs naturally as a force of habit even in the house, so she only sensed a small bump that may or may not have been theirs. Last she felt Naruto's signature, typically warm and sunny, felt very frazzled and erratic. So she followed it, back down the hall, down stairs, through the kitchen, down another hall and finally, to the library.

She gently pushed the door open and Naruto jerked his head up from where he was sitting in the middle of the room, wide-eyed like he'd been caught shoplifting. He was on the ground surrounded by open books, some of which could give the Bible a run for its money in terms of length. He still hadn't said anything, but now he was looking abashedly at the floor. Sakura walked over and squatted next to his mess getting a better look at which books he had out, which turned out to be every book on chakra theory they had in the house.

"Naruto," she began, making her voice as patient as she could, "What are you doing?"

"I tried to read that scroll sensei gave us," he sounded miserable, "But I just don't understand any of it. So I tried to read these and teach myself, but…" He trailed off, still not meeting Sakura's eyes.

"I'll help you then." She stated firmly, and he finally looked up at her. His eyes were glassy, like he was trying not to cry.

"But what if I'm too stupid to-" He started to say, but she cut him off.

"I won't listen to you slander my teammate like that." She said in a stern voice, Naruto looked shocked by the suddenness of it but then he grinned at her. "And we all have our strengths Naruto, this is mine." She continued in that same patient, teacher-like voice. "Don't ever be scared to ask me for help, I will never judge you for wanting to learn." She wasn't quite sure what to say after that, but he decided for her by pulling her into a tight hug, made slightly awkward because of the mote of between them. For the next couple hours she gave him a remedial course in chakra theory, control, and manipulation. At some point they both dozed off, using the piles of books as bedding.

* * *

And that was how they were found in the morning, Sakura woke up to Kushina's giggling and the flash of a camera as Mikoto memorialized their first all-nighter as genin. Naruto was sprawled messily across a pile of books, and Sakura was using his lower back as a pillow.

"What time is it?" She groaned and sat up slowly, her back aching and complaining the second she started moving.

"Huh?" Naruto groaned and rolled off the book mountain.

"6:30,"Mikoto replied, "we were tempted to wait until seven to teach you a lesson about resting when you can."

"But we also want to encourage this kind of behavior at more appropriate hours," Kushina picked up where Mikoto left off. "So we compromised and left you to sleep on the floor, but woke you up before you'd be late."

"Thank you?" Sakura asked more than said. Naruto stood up and stretched leaving with Kushina, Sakura was about to follow but Mikoto put a hand on her shoulder signifying that she wanted to talk.

"Naruto needed a medic level chakra theory course?" She asked in a joking tone.

Not quite sure where this was going Sakura gave a quick explanation about their homework and why Naruto needed help.

"Ah that makes sense." Mikoto agreed, and then got to her poin. "Would you be willing to help Sasuke in a similar way?"

"Sasuke never struggled with theory in school?" Sakura asked again instead of stating, still groggy this early in the morning.

"He has a weakness that many of our clan possess," Mikoto paused, giving her a second to process. "He is over reliant on his eyes, I'm not sure he could break out of a genjutsu, or if he'd even try."

"But if he can see through them then why would he need to break out of them?" Sakura wasn't sure where Mikoto was going with this.

"Genjutsu can affect all of the senses, we can only see through visual genjutsus which are also the most common." Sakura looked like she understood but Mikoto wasn't finished. "And you can confuse an Uchiha by layering too many genjutsu," Sakura began looking confused again so Mikoto elaborated. "Imagine seeing dozens of genjutsu ghosts at once."

It dawned on Sakura then, the ghost of a genjutsu showed it's caster a very transparent version of what the target was seeing. A risk of layering several genjutsu was confusing yourself visually, and then not noticing a stray kunai, or any other number of threats.

"So I would like you to show Sasuke the error of his ways," Mikoto continued in a voice that Sakura thought was far too cheerful considering the topic at hand. "I'll leave the rest to you and if you succeed we can take the next step in your evocative genjutsu training." That was plenty of motivation for Sakura, so she left to quickly get ready.

Sasuke and Naruto were finishing their breakfast when she came into the kitchen. Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at her disheveled appearance and smirked. She ignored him and went upstairs to begin her morning ritual. Ten minutes later she was standing in the kitchen with a piece of toast. Quick goodbyes were exchanged and they were on their way to the same training grounds from the day prior.

"So, do one of you want to tell me why you were sleeping in the library?" Sasuke asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"I couldn't understand the scroll Kakashi-sensei gave me, so Sakura was teaching me about chakra theory last night." Naruto said, and then visibly braced for the teasing insult. Sakura was glad that Sasuke seemed to notice Naruto's mood and chose not to joke. Instead he just hummed quietly in affirmation and kept looking ahead. A few minutes of walking in comfortable silence later, and they were at training grounds ten and their sensei was already there waiting for them.

"They say that being five minutes early is considered on time," he greeted them with mock irritation.

"But you were so late yesterday!" Naruto almost shouted, and Sasuke nodded in agreement. Sakura chose to keep a pleasant smile on her face, hoping to maintain her sensei's favorite status. Somehow their sensei's pout was visible through the mask.

"At least one of you respects me." He almost whined.

"Good morning sensei," Sakura greeted cheerfully, eager to move on from the theatrics. "What will be doing today?"

Kakashi dropped his kicked puppy demeanor and got back to business. Today we're going to cover your strengths and you're going to teach one of them to each other." That made sense to Sakura, it would be a good way to build teamwork, but they already knew each other very well. "But first, you two," he pointed at Naruto and Sasuke. "Go warm up with a spar, I want to talk to Sakura."

* * *

Kakashi wasn't used to showing up early, but he wanted to do good by his sensei's kid, and the other two were interesting, specifically the girl.

"So Sakura, let's talk about your skill set." Kakashi opened amiably enough. He was curious as to how a fresh out of the academy genin had such a diversified roster of techniques, but he would hold off on the interrogation tactics.

She paused to think for a second before replying, "My most developed skills are innvocative genjutsu, setting traps, basic medic abilities, and I use paralytic poisons I make myself." That was an impressive list to say the least, almost too impressive for a new genin that wasn't part of a clan. Even if Mikoto and Kushina had been raising the girl, they must've been teaching her since she started at the academy.

Maybe it was time for a little interrogation, "Why so many?" His tone was innocent, but he saw something in her eyes sharpen at the question. He was caught off guard when her tone was even more unbothered than before.

"My mother's are great resources for knowledge," she said delicately, but he wasn't finished.

"And yet Naruto and Sasuke have each specialized in one thing." It wasn't really a question or a statement, it was almost an accusation. Of what, Kakashi wasn't sure. But Konoha had a history with both genjutsu and poison users, and something about the intelligent glint in her eyes was reminding him of traitors best not mentioned.

"I don't have endless stamina and chakra reserves, or a prodigious disposition towards ninjutsu, my only natural talent is in chakra control." Her honesty caught him off guard, "If I specialized in only one area I would never be able to keep up with them."

Just like that his paranoia was appeased, at least for the moment. "Ah, that makes sense." She looked up at him without that carefully crafted calm look, "So what do you want to work on now?"

"Evocative genjutsu, chakra sensing, elemental manipulation, taijutsu, making more lethal poisons, and I want to get an apprenticeship at the hospital." She answered without hesitation, clearly having thought her goals through before.

"Well I assume your moms will help with most of that, but taijutsu and ninjutsu are my specialties." Kakashi was glad to hear that she wanted to improve the more basic forms of fighting, even if they didn't come naturally to her. "And you'll benefit from Naruto and Sasuke's masterclasses in their strengths."

"But what should I teach them?" She asked after a moment's hesitation.

"Let's start with low level genjutsu, and breaking out of them." He replied. Sakura nodded and looked down muttering something about lesson plans to herself. Kakashi grinned at her excitement and gently steered her back towards the spar that had turned into a brawl worthy of the rowdiest bar. He silently sighed and pulled out his book, he was willing to curb his habitual lateness but he couldn't ruin his carefully crafted image of aloofness, at least not yet.

Sakura was pulled out of her thoughts when Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the collar and threw him in her direction. "BOYS!" She got their attention immediately. They were both covered in bruises, scratches, and blood, surrounded by what seemed to be every weapon they'd had in their pouches. At least they had the self awareness to look embarrassed. Sakura quickly got to work cleaning and bandaging the two of them all while scolding them under her breath. Kakashi covered his chuckle with a cough when he thought about how the boys had three mothers.

"Let's get started then!" He exclaimed with mock enthusiasm once Sakura was finished.

* * *

Sakura was exhausted, Naruto had taught first and she really did owe him an apology. She's always assumed his fighting style was entirely erratic and unplanned but he'd led them through a series of katas and situations in which the movements could be used and how they could be modified for other circumstances. It was just the basics and Naruto's style didn't suit Sakura, but it did inspire her to research into which styles would, and gave her an idea of how to begin overhauling her hand to hand combat. In all it took roughly an hour and a half and they stopped around nine for a break and Kakashi went over what Naruto had taught them.

"So what did you learn from this?" Kakashi asked once the three of them were seated in the shade of one of the many trees.

"That Naruto would be a good teacher," Sasuke said, surprising Sakura with his sincerity. Then he smirked and added, "Which is remarkable considering how stupid he is."

"Hey-" Naruto immediately began to report, but Sakura cut him off.

"I learned that Naruto put a lot more effort into his form than I thought." Sakura said kindly hoping Naruto would forget about Sasuke's insult.

"Thanks-" Naruto started to say but was once again cut off.

"That's all well and good," Kakashi started, ignoring Naruto's indignant huff at being silenced again. "But how can you apply his lesson to your training?"

"We already go through katas together every morning." Sasuke informed their sensei.

"Yes, your mother's told me that the two of you spar too much." Kakashi replied.

"When did you-" Naruto attempted to ask, but Kakashi interrupted again.

"The question is mostly for Sakura, she said she wants to improve her taijutsu." He answered Sasuke's question, but was looking at Sakura with amusement in his eyes, probably at Naruto's blatant pouting.

"Naruto's style isn't for me," Sakura began after a moment of thought, then ignored Naruto's blatant look of disbelief and continued. "But the method is, I want to find a style that works for me and practice it the way he taught us." When she was finished she looked to Kakashi-sensei for his approval.

"And I have someone in mind who might be able to help you find that style." Kakashi answered her questioning look with a cheery grin. "But we'll worry about that later, now it's time for Sasuke's class."

* * *

Kakashi was leaning up against a tree watching his students over the top of his book. He was openly grinning at the growing frustration on all three of their faces. To be fair to Sasuke he wasn't doing a bad job explaining, but his style of ninjutsu was not suited to his teammates skill sets. Standard ninjutsu were too restrictive and chakra intensive for Sakura's small reserves. On the other side of the spectrum, Naruto had too little control to cause any more than an uncontrolled explosion every time he tried to produce a fireball.

After another fifteen minutes of watching Sakura practically beg for more instruction, Naruto causing worryingly large explosions, and Sasuke spiraling into shame faced failure, Kakashi decided to step in. "Ok let's review shall we?"

Sasuke looked up with the purest form of relief in his eyes. "Why isn't anything working?"

"Naruto has too little control to perform a ninjutsu that isn't wind natured right now." Naruto looked a little put out at that and tried to comment but Kakashi talked over him. "And Sakura doesn't have enough chakra for traditional ninjutsu, they waste too much chakra."

"Traditional ninjutsu?" Sakura asked him inquisitively.

"Did you read the scroll?" He countered back, hoping to encourage free thinking.

She thought about it for a minute and then posed a question herself, "Why do you need ninjutsu if you can just manipulate the element?" She asked but didn't seem finished, "Ninjutsu seems a lot more…" She trailed off.

"Restrictive?" Kakashi finished her sentence while looking at her to see if that was what she was going for. At her nod he continued, "Because most people will never have enough control over their chakra to realistically use pure elemental manipulation in combat." Sakura seemed to understand at that, but the boys needed a little more information. "Ninjutsu as well as hand signs are shortcuts, a way to make the element do what you want but at the cost of more chakra and less control over how the element manifests." He was expecting Naruto to be confused but he nodded in happy understanding, and Sasuke just looked relieved that his teaching wasn't the cause of his teammates failure.

"So once I learn a wind jutsu Sasuke can help me?" Naruto inquired, looking incredibly relieved that he was able to get through the question without being interrupted.

"Yes, and I will start working with Sakura on earth manipulation soon." He'd expected a bout of jealousy from the other two but they just seemed pleased that they'd all be learning. Perhaps he'd been a bit too harsh in their first test. "But for now, let's have lunch and then it's Sakura's time to shine."

* * *

During their brief lunch of soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, provided by their sensei, Sakura continued to work on a plan for her lesson. She would separate them because they had different weaknesses when it came to genjutsu, and their competitive nature would not be helpful. Additionally she was also hoping to accomplish her mother's mission in helping Sasuke.

So far it was going better than she could have hoped, she was currently trying her best to hide the smug grin threatening to erupt on her face. She'd rarely seen Sasuke look so frustrated. Naruto had had some trouble breaking out of her genjutsus at first but he seemed to be getting the hang of it, so she'd given him a new task. Walk in a straight line for ten meters back and forth, and avoid the small obstacles she'd put in his way. The catch was that some of them were weak area effect genjutsu that just put up the illusion of a rock or large stick. At least that was what he thought, truthfully they were all genjutsu and currently he had about a twenty percent success rate at identifying them, but she was proud nonetheless.

Sasuke on the other hand, had yet to break out of her first genjutsu. She'd taken her mother's advice and put an auditory genjutsu on Sasuke, all it did was make his ears ring. In the academy they'd only ever practiced breaking out of visual genjutsu and Sasuke had simply looked through them with his Sharingan, simultaneously passing the test and wowing the other girls in their class. Sakura was playing on that weakness now, no matter how many times he'd shouted Kai, nothing had worked. She wasn't really sure why it wasn't working, unless he was just not channeling chakra into the hand sign, but Sasuke wasn't stupid.

She figured Kakashi-sensei would know what was wrong, for now she was just relaxing in the shade occasionally setting up new genjutsu for Naruto. She was also taking this extra time to reflect on how she'd felt during Sasuke's 'class.' She hadn't felt that useless in a long time, but after thirty minutes of desperately trying to conjure fire and begging Sasuke for help, she'd been ready to send herself back to the academy for being incompetent. She hadn't realized until Kakashi had explained why she couldn't do it that she'd slipped back into that overly self deprecating state of mind that she used to live in before she'd accepted that her mothers didn't see her as a burden. She'd pushed herself to the brink of exhaustion day after day trying to prove that they weren't wasting their time with her, until eventually they'd had a talk about how she was their daughter, not just a student. Occasionally that thought process weaseled its way back into her mind and she would have to take a minute to reevaluate her circumstances and remind herself that competence doesn't correlate to worth. Kushina had been telling her that in simpler words since her first year at the academy, and she was still there to remind her if she needed it. She almost yelped when Kakashi appeared squatting in front of her and tapped her on the head with his book.

"Maybe it's time to give them a break." He said standing and gesturing to where Sasuke was laying face down repeatedly hitting his forehead on a rock, and Naruto was hunched over intently examining a fake rock. Sakura chuckled and cut her chakra connection to the jutsus, Naruto was so startled by the rocks' disappearance and fell backwards into a sitting position. Sasuke just stopped banging his head and groaned.

Kakashi brought them both over to the shade where Sakura was still sitting. "So how do you think you did?" Kakashi asked no one in particular. When both boys just looked abashadly at the ground, he turned to Sakura and said, "What did you think of their performances?"

"Naruto had about a twenty percent success rate, which is a lot of progress from where he was in the academy." Naruto smiled brightly at her which almost made her stop. Almost, "But I would dock points because he never thought to consider that they were all genjutsu, even though the obstacles he thought were real moved each time he turned around." His smile was a little less bright, but he didn't look too upset so Sakura thought she'd worded that well. Sakura was less confident in how to assess Sasuke.

After a couple beats had passed she continued, "And Sasuke… struggled more than I thought he would." She decided to keep it short, hoping Kakashi-sensei would know what to say.

"That was a dirty trick Sakura," Kakashi said to her instead of giving his opinion. Sakura couldn't really argue with that either, but maybe it had been an effective one. "Would you care to explain why?"

Sakura gave him a half hearted glare before timidly turning to Sasuke and explaining herself. " You rely too heavily on your dojutsu," he looked up with a mildly betrayed look in his eyes. She stuttered and turned back to Kakashi blushing.

He was looking at her inquisitively, "And this has nothing to do with what Sasuke said yesterday?"

Sasuke looked to the ground and Naruto looked scandalized. "W-what?" Sakura sputtered, "n-no of course not!"

Kakashi looked ready to push the matter when Sasuke muttered, "Sakura isn't like that."

Naruto finally picked his jaw up off the ground and piped up, "Yeah! Sakura-" But apparently today was interrupt Naruto day and their sensei was celebrating.

"And you agree with her method?" Kakashi asked, directing the question to Sasuke.

"It was humiliating," Sasuke stated with no hesitation, Sakura's face flushed with shame. "But she's right, and…" he hesitated, "I would probably have been too stubborn to listen."

"And that's why your mom asked me to talk to you about it." Sakura said, trying to subtly defend herself in front of their sensei.

Sasuke just groaned and mumbled, "Better you than her."

Kakashi closed his book for the first time since the interrogation began and looked at the three of them. After a minute of awkward silence he seemed to come to a conclusion. "Ok, then all is well, but next time let's try a little communication." He directed this to Sakura who wouldn't meet his eyes.

He looked up at the sun, "And that's enough for today, meet back here tomorrow at the same time." Before anyone could respond he poofed away and the three remaining began another semi awkward walk home.

A/N

...hii..how yall doin..?

So I know I don't have much of an audience but I still feel bad about how long this took. I've practically had this written for almost a year now, my adhd wouldn't let me edit/proof read it so here we are. Now that I'm starting school again I'm usually more productive on things that aren't related to school haha. So my goal is to write a chapter a month hopefully, if I really get into it I'll try to make it more often than that. Anyway thanks for reading! Comment if you feel like it, have a good one!


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